ADVERTISE
CONTACT US
SUBMISSIONS
  • News
    Attractive woman

    Isabelle Eberdean serves sleek soul-hop / Inner Thoughts

    Cool black woman

    Misha and Ashley DuBose paint body-positive R&B anthem / Michelangelo

    body in photo

    The dreamy sound of Yehra continues to seduce / Magnetic

    Woman in orange top on a mattress

    Malu impresses with première release / Polish

    Red hued woman

    Klara Zangerl charms with quizzical soulful/pop single

    Group with woman in pink

    Ida Sand turns up the heat with new single / Burning

    Cool man in hat, blue sky

    BAUN releases rebellious Jazzy-Soul single / The Mask

    Amalie Bryde delivers an emphatic new single / No

  • Reviews
    • All
    • Album Review
    • Live Review
    • Single / EP Reviews
    record cover

    Trust this Feeling – Band Of Pockets

    Black and white album cover

    Little White Dove – Arvid Nero

    Album cover with cool man

    Sam Ezeh – Night at Ezeh’s

    Record cover

    JEONA – JEONA EP

  • Features
    • All
    • Interviews
    • Scandinavian Soul Sessions
    • Soul Talk
    Man outside vinyl factory

    New vinyl pressing plant to open in Finland

    Black and white image of singer

    JONAS and 2PLAY excel in live session video 

    Live band black and white

    Reverse Lights on Oscar Soul Experience

    The Service shake new sonic dimensions

    Young people on a boat

    Young band Martinas Mixtape set sail in a neo-soul direction

  • Events
    • Scandinavian Soul Music Awards
  • Artists / Bands
  • Videos
    • Playlists
  • Shop
    • SOUL SHOP
      • STYLE
      • MERCHANDISE
      • BOOKS
      • SALE
No Result
View All Result
0

No products in the basket.

  • News
    Attractive woman

    Isabelle Eberdean serves sleek soul-hop / Inner Thoughts

    Cool black woman

    Misha and Ashley DuBose paint body-positive R&B anthem / Michelangelo

    body in photo

    The dreamy sound of Yehra continues to seduce / Magnetic

    Woman in orange top on a mattress

    Malu impresses with première release / Polish

    Red hued woman

    Klara Zangerl charms with quizzical soulful/pop single

    Group with woman in pink

    Ida Sand turns up the heat with new single / Burning

    Cool man in hat, blue sky

    BAUN releases rebellious Jazzy-Soul single / The Mask

    Amalie Bryde delivers an emphatic new single / No

  • Reviews
    • All
    • Album Review
    • Live Review
    • Single / EP Reviews
    record cover

    Trust this Feeling – Band Of Pockets

    Black and white album cover

    Little White Dove – Arvid Nero

    Album cover with cool man

    Sam Ezeh – Night at Ezeh’s

    Record cover

    JEONA – JEONA EP

  • Features
    • All
    • Interviews
    • Scandinavian Soul Sessions
    • Soul Talk
    Man outside vinyl factory

    New vinyl pressing plant to open in Finland

    Black and white image of singer

    JONAS and 2PLAY excel in live session video 

    Live band black and white

    Reverse Lights on Oscar Soul Experience

    The Service shake new sonic dimensions

    Young people on a boat

    Young band Martinas Mixtape set sail in a neo-soul direction

  • Events
    • Scandinavian Soul Music Awards
  • Artists / Bands
  • Videos
    • Playlists
  • Shop
    • SOUL SHOP
      • STYLE
      • MERCHANDISE
      • BOOKS
      • SALE
No Result
View All Result
0

No products in the basket.

No Result
View All Result

Fire! Orchestra (SWE)

Isa Jallow (SWE) - Unfinished Business

Soul – The Voice of Change

The label 'Soul Music' is so natural for us, but what does it really mean?

Theodor Lundgren by Theodor Lundgren
08/09/2014
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Pinterest

Scandinaviansoul.com writes primarily about soul music in Scandinavia, highlighting and interviewing artists in the Nordic regions who sing or create music with soul.

However, sometimes it can be good to turn one’s head and look back, or maybe look inside of what we are doing.

The label ‘Soul Music’ is so natural for us, but what does it really mean? Moreover, can you really find it in Scandinavia?

Joel RudinowTo help me answer that question, I contacted the American professor in philosophy, Joel Rudinow (pictured left) who wrote the book “Soul Music – Tracking the Spiritual Roots of Pop from Plato to Motown”, and asked him to define soul music.

I identify soul music originally as a stylistic merger of African American gospel music with rhythm & blues and rock & roll, which coincides historically with the American civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

Many people generally refer soul music to the style of pop music that came up in the late 1950 with the singer Sam Cooke and his gospel group “The Soul Stirrers” who had the hit “You Send Me” in 1957.

However, Joel Rudinow writes that according to the African American writer Amiri Baraka, the word “soul” was used within music a couple of years before that by jazz musicians to label something authentic, something that went against the ‘tamed’ and ‘domesticated’ music that was mass distributed by the mainly racist cultural industry at that time.

The jazz musicians, among them for example: John Coltrane and Horace Silver, honoured a link between African American music innovations and the African American church. In their music, they used the call-and-response and the spirit possession characteristic in many African American churches. All this was a conscious resistance against the repressive and racist conditions of 1950s America. The word soul became a sign of solidarity within the African American community in their struggles for justice and empowerment. The word was added to various things such as soul food, soul patch, and soul brother.

So the roots of soul music is closely connected with the American civil right struggles and is also very connected with the spiritual and suggestive moods aggregated in many of the African American churches at that time. A mood that is not being controlled or tamed; a feeling of liberation from an often suppressing and hard daily life.

Joel Rudinow writes about the spiritual roots of soul music, so I asked him if there is such a thing as soul music without the spiritual connection.

There’s a sense in which all music, all life, all everything, is spiritual, or has spiritual significance. On the other hand, there’s a sense in which spirituality depends on the awareness, the practices and intentions of those involved in the activity, whatever it is. In response to this question, an interesting example to look at is what Tina Turner has done with her life and with music.  

Tina Turner overcame hardships in life and managed to comeback both as an artist and as a person, which makes somehow a telling example about the core of soul music.

So from the American civil rights struggle and beyond, soul music has been working as a tool for healing both on a personal level, as the example of Tina Turner demonstrates, and also on a national and community level.

An example on a community level that I read about in Joel Rudinow’s book of how the soul music movement in practice created a new culture, in opposition to the surrounding community, is that of how the soul movement in the American south, was racially not only mixed, but integrated.

something that went against the ‘tamed’ and ‘domesticated’ music

The legendary record company Stax records was more or less from the beginning racially integrated on all levels from the start of 1957, and this was in Memphis Tennessee, a state that as late as 1971 would rather close their public swimming pool than let blacks and whites swim side by side.

Perhaps Mavis Staples said it best in the liner notes to her 2007 CD, ‘We’ll Never Turn Back’.   She said, “Here it is, 2007, and there are still so many problems and social injustices in the world. Well I tell you we need a change now more than ever, and I’m turning to the church again for strength . . .  We’ve got to keep pushing to make the world a better place”.

Maybe the movement forward, towards a better world is an essence of soul music.

So here in Scandinavia, when listening to soul music, it could be good to consider the origins of the music we love. Sometimes it can be good to think about the soul part of soul music. Especially now when there are forces in our society judging people because of their origin or how they look.

We should not forget that soul music bears resistance and healing at its core. The soul music scene in Scandinavia represents a multi-racial collective of people and stands strong against racist currents around us, and when looking into the history we see that it is not a coincidence, it lies in the soul.

A change is gonna come. It has to. Always.

 

More:

SMbookJoel Rudinow’s excellent book is called “soul music: tracking the spiritual roots of Pop from Plato to Motown”.

Professor Rudinow is also a passionate musician, his love for soul music started before his interest in philosophy, starting when he first heard Ray Charles.

You can listen to his music project “The Parlor Professors Project“, which you find here: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/on-your-way-down-single/id855819265

 

 

Tags: Soul Music
x
Your browser does not support the video tag. Download Video
SEE THE VIDEO AMANDA FONDELL
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

Latest News

Where’s the soul at in Stockholm

by Andy Collins
29/01/2019
Load More

Discover more

Attractive woman
Latest News

Isabelle Eberdean serves sleek soul-hop / Inner Thoughts

16/04/2021
Cool black woman
Latest News

Misha and Ashley DuBose paint body-positive R&B anthem / Michelangelo

16/04/2021
body in photo
Latest News

The dreamy sound of Yehra continues to seduce / Magnetic

16/04/2021
Prev Next
x
Your browser does not support the video tag. Download Video

VISIT sheilasimmenes.com

Archives

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM

  • What a debut. 🔥🎧👏🏾 Polish / the new single by @malucph is a shiny example of a dream debut!! See the full video and follow @malucph Oh my.. still on repeat.... #malu #scandinaviansoul #neosoul #video #newmusic
  • Hope @theorange_girl won’t mind us calling her tasty, but she is and soul/hip-hop single - Orange gave our site a delicious twist! Take a listen and follow @theorange_girl #theorangegirl #scandinaviansoul #hiphop #soul #gospel #newmusic #newartist
  • A jazzy soulful treat arrived from @baunmusic with his single The Mask. 🎧Though the song rebels against social media, he makes it sound so good!! Discover & follow @baunmusic #jazz #soul #scandinaviansoul #baun #newmusicfriday

Little extra details…

  • My account
  • Customer Service
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Behind the scenes

  • ABOUT US
  • EVERYTHING SCANDINAVIAN SOUL IS AND ISN’T
  • JOIN OUR TEAM

“stripe”

© 2012-2021 scandinaviansoul.com. Design by 68-design.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
    • Single / EP Reviews
    • Album Review
    • Live Review
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Soul Talk
  • Videos
  • Playlists
  • Artists / Bands
  • SOUL SHOP
  • Cart
  • Contact us
  • About us
Close